Aktindeling

Aktindeling is a system used in Dutch-language archival practice to organize acts (akten) by their legal function or type rather than by date alone. The term translates roughly to act classification and is applied to notarial, civil, and probate records in archives such as city and national repositories in the Netherlands and Flanders. The purpose is to facilitate retrieval, preservation, and cross-referencing by structuring documents around the nature of the act.

In practice, aktindeling groups documents into broad classes and subcategories. Common classes include property and real estate acts (for example koopakten or leveringsakten related to transfer of title), financial acts (hypotheekakten or other mortgage and loan deeds), and family or personal status acts (birth, marriage, death records, wills, guardianships, or adoption documents). Business and corporate acts (partnerships, company formations, contracts) and miscellaneous or contract acts (notarial agreements, powers of attorney) are also found within many schemes. Each institution may tailor the subcategories to its holdings and local legal practice.

Implementation typically involves assigning a primary class and subcategories to each act, often accompanied by a code, date, place, and notary reference. This information appears in archival finding aids and catalog records, enabling researchers to locate relevant documents efficiently and to understand the scope of a given collection. The exact structure of aktindeling varies between archives and countries, reflecting local legal traditions and archival standards. Nevertheless, it remains a widespread, practical approach to organizing large volumes of legal deeds and related records for improved access and study.